Tomica Time, Land of the Rising Sun-Day, is here again. Today we take a look at Tomica F44-1, the aptly named Chevrolet Truck. This casting entered the range in April 1978, remaining until January 1980, and represents the progress this brand experience during the era:
The squarebody - everyone knows it. In production in various forms for roughly 20 years, this design defines pickup for a generation of people, and are now becoming a sought after classic as most were used up and put out to pasture when worn out. This model contains the fine line casting detail and accurate proportion we expect from the brand, and the metallic blue paint looks excellent with the tampos, which appear as new. This casting has the crisp glazing, springy suspension, and snappy door action we admire in vintage Tomica. Scale is claimed to be 1:77, Tomica is usually accurate in their scaling, but I have a feeling this claimed scale is too small - the model doesn't feel dainty, and squarebodies weren't as ginormous as modern pickups. From all angles, one can imagine this shortbed stepside from a time when pickups were utility vehicles first cruising down a country road or maybe even a period 55 mph highway with an urban cowboy behind the wheel - both with Oak Ridge Boys on the radio:
Doors open to reveal a detailed interior and accurate steering wheel:
Front and rear have similar quality detail to the rest of the casting, with the accurate grille and "CHEVROLET" on the tailgate being nice touches:
The base is metal, which adds heft and contains technical and identifying data:
This model is fortunate enough to live its clean original box:
I'm pleased to have this model in my collection, as color and tampos are excellent - several variants of this model exist, yellow and brown versions were widely sold as Pocket Cars and are not hard to find today, while this version is less common, but not insanely rare:
Image of a similar 1:1 from imcdb.com - the color of this casting resembles a truck seen in many scenes in the 1984 original "Red Dawn":
Sweet looking example
I love this casting, for the time period it's a great replica. I actually have the "Pocket Cars" Camper truck which is the same casting, but fitted with a camper shell and release in a blister pack, the blister is a little tattered but still sealed. I'm torn as to whether I should open it.